Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) – Chinese medicine practitioners, chiropractors, osteopaths.
Contact the professional association for your chosen therapy and ask for a list of members in your area.
Like other prescription medications, herbal medicine should always be prescribed by a qualified and registered practitioner. Herbal medicines may produce negative effects that can range from mild to severe, including: Herbal medicines can be mistakenly thought to be completely safe because they are 'natural' products. Special considerations for herbal medicine Any medication (herbal or otherwise) should be taken under the supervision of a knowledgeable and qualified practitioner. It is very important that people do not self-diagnose any health conditions. However, St John’s Wort can interact with a number of prescription medications, including the oral contraceptive pill, and stop them from working properly. It is also used for anxiety and insomnia. Studies have suggested that St John’s Wort is just as effective as some pharmaceutical antidepressants in treating mild to moderate depression. Hypericum perforatum – commonly known as St John’s Wort.
It is also used to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels, however overuse of ginseng has been associated with raised blood pressure.
Different herbs act on different systems of the body. Herbal medicine aims to return the body to a state of natural balance so that it can heal itself. Critics argue that the nature of herbal medicine makes it difficult to give a measured dose of an active ingredient. Aspirin can cause the lining of the stomach to bleed, but meadowsweet naturally contains other compounds that prevent irritation from salicylic acid.Īccording to herbal medicine practitioners, the effect of the whole plant is greater than its parts. Practitioners of herbal medicine believe that an active ingredient can lose its impact or become less safe if used in isolation from the rest of the plant.įor instance, salicylic acid is found in the plant meadowsweet and is used to make aspirin. Some pharmaceutical medications are based on a single active ingredient derived from a plant source. The active ingredients of many herbal preparations are as yet unknown. Herbal medicines contain active ingredients. For instance, the heart medicine digitalis was derived from the foxglove plant. In fact, many pharmaceutical medications are based on man-made versions of naturally occurring compounds found in plants. Some herbs have potent (powerful) ingredients and should be taken with the same level of caution as pharmaceutical medications. It involves the medicinal use of plants to treat disease and enhance general health and wellbeing. Herbal medicine has its origins in ancient cultures.